Praying for Peace

¹ First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, ² for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way.

I Tim. 2: 1-2

When the world seems to be falling apart and life is in turmoil, what can Christians do to change things? If each of us who profess faith were to fall on our knees and pray for peace, perhaps the world might be made a bit better? Let's give it shot for today. Anyone care to join me?

Inspecting the Fruit of One's Life

⁴⁶ "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you? ⁴⁷ Every one who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: ⁴⁸ he is like a man building a house, who dug deep, and laid the foundation upon rock; and when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it, because it had been well built. ⁴⁹ But he who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; against which the stream broke, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."

Luke 6:46-49

The words of Jesus in Luke 6 are telling. While we are told that we are not to judge people (that is the Lord's job); we cannot help but inspect the fruit of what comes from each person's life. When we meet people whose lives are filled with integrity, honesty and commitment to the work of the kingdom of God, it is obvious. Christians whose lives are grounded in faith have an unshakable ability to handle the trials and tribulations of life. Christians get cancer. Tragedy strikes every day in the family of God. But, how one responds to his or her trials and tribulations speaks volumes about a believer's commitment to a personal faith in a living God. Calling upon Jesus as Lord is not enough. On the day of judgment there will be many who cry out, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or naked..." (Matt. 25) Knowing what to do and doing it are two different things. It is not enough to "know" the answers. How we act and behave makes a difference. Faith has be put into action in one's life. How we live will be the litmus test of what we believe. Where one's heart is focused reveals a person's values. Putting God first and loving your neighbor as yourself is an easy way to make decisions. Every time we put God first, we will be blessed by building on the foundation. When someone builds upon the sand, the results are foolishness. There is no hiding the results. It is like fruit hanging on a tree.

Habakkuk

This minor prophet found near the end of the Old Testament was probably a priest before he was called to be a prophet. He wrote about the same time as Jeremiah. Habakkuk would have also been a contemporary of Daniel in the days leading up to the Babylonian captivity.

Habakkuk asks the question that every believer encounters in life: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" This is one of his main themes. Chapter 1 lays it out succinctly:

¹ The oracle of God which Habak'kuk the prophet saw. ² O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and thou wilt not hear? Or cry to thee "Violence!" and thou wilt not save? ³ Why dost thou make me see wrongs and look upon trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. ⁴ So the law is slacked and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted. ⁵ Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.⁶ For lo, I am rousing the Chalde'ans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize habitations not their own. ⁷ Dread and terrible are they; their justice and dignity proceed from themselves. ⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Yea, their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. ⁹ They all come for violence; terror of them goes before them. They gather captives like sand. ¹⁰ At kings they scoff, and of rulers they make sport. They laugh at every fortress, for they heap up earth and take it. ¹¹ Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god! ¹² Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them as a judgment; and thou, O Rock, hast established them for chastisement. ¹³ Thou who art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on wrong, why dost thou look on faithless men, and art silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? ¹⁴ For thou makest men like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. ¹⁵ He brings all of them up with a hook, he drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his seine; so he rejoices and exults. ¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his seine; for by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich. ¹⁷ Is he then to keep on emptying his net, and mercilessly slaying nations for ever?

In Chapter two we come to a pivotal passage in verse 4:

"The Just shall live by faith."

This verse became the primary prompt for Martin Luther which led to the Reformation. It is also a unifying quotation in a trilogy of Paul's epistles:

1. Who are the "Just" Answer: Romans 1:17
2. How shall they "live"? Answer: Galations 3:11
3. "By faith!" Habakkuk declares. Paul focuses on this in Hebrews 10: 38.

In fact this last quote precedes the famous "Hall of Faith" of Hebrews 11. [This is one reason why many believe Paul was the author of the Hebrew letter.]

Habakkuk's writings are not about being called by God into ministry. In fact, it is Habakkuk who is initiating the dialog with God about ministry. Habakkuk is the one asking the questions and God is responding. One can see this concept of wrestling with God in the life of Jacob. In Genesis 28, Jacob has a personal theophany with God at Bethel. God appears to him in a dream and there is a ladder with angels who are ascending and descending into heaven. Jacob awakens to the realization that he is on Holy ground. He builds an alter and worships there. Right after this event he finds the love of his life....Rachel. In Genesis 35 he returns to Bethel. This is after he has wrestled with the "angel" all night and had his name changed from "Jacob" to "Israel". He again worships at Bethel by building an alter. But this time when he departs, not far from Bethel, Rachel goes into labor with their son, Benjamin, and Rachel dies from complications of childbirth. Interestingly, Rachel's tomb is still there today just outside of Bethlehem. I believe that every follower of Christ experiences the hilltop and valley experiences of life in this manner. The words of Job 1: 21 describe this as:

"Naked I came from mother's womb; and naked shall I return there;

the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;

blessed be the name of the Lord."

Since we each enter life with nothing and take nothing physical with us when we exit, the experience of life itself is what the process is all about. Religion wants to make it about rules, regulations and sacraments. However, for the believer it is all about "faith". How does one walk in the Way in a fallen and corrupt world? Without faith we cannot please God. Faith is not about an abstract ideal....it is a relationship with a living God that is a give and take dialog every day of our lives about the things that are good and the things that are bad. The difference is that God is the one who gets to decide what is "good and evil". Without the omniscient point of view, man cannot determine for himself what is good or bad in the end. It is only by the "eye of faith" that we can glimpse a bit of the eternal through God's revelation of his Word. Habakkuk got it long before the arrival of the Messiah. But, the revelation is as true today for every child of God as it was to him when this was written.

What is Truth?

“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

John 8:32

When Jesus stood before Pilate at his trial before his death, Pilate states "So you are a King?" The charge against him was one of treason. That charged carried with it the death penalty.

Jesus answered:

"You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice."

So Pilate asks a follow up question: "What is Truth?" There is no answer given in scripture to that question. However, after this interaction Pilate goes out to the crowd and says, "I find no crime in him".

The reason that there is no spoken answer is that Jesus is Truth incarnate. For the Christian, "truth" is not an abstract like a mathematical equation. 1 + 1 = 2. The scientist would say that this is truth. It is repeatable, demonstrable and verifiable. But, the empirical way of looking at life is not how we live our lives. We make decisions daily on the basis of faith. When we write a check we believe that the money will be in our bank account when the check reaches the bank. That is an act of faith. In the same way, how do we do know that something actually happened? In our criminal law, we have to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that a person committed a criminal act before one can be punished as a criminal. Yet, unfortunately, some innocent people are convicted; and, many who are guilty go free. How do we ever "know" something is true?

There is within each of us a "filter" that we develop by experience that we use daily to tell if something is true or not. Sometimes we are fooled; and, we learn by those experiences that not everything is always as it seems. In fact, we learn the hard way that the unseen things are more important than what is seen. How does one measure virtue? How can one tell if someone loves them? What demonstrates integrity?

Jesus made a bold claim. He said in John 14:6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. " Jesus claims to be God in the flesh. That claim either makes him a mad man; or, he is whom he claimed to be. John tells us in the first chapter of his book that the "Word of God" which spoke the world into existence was made flesh. The reason Jesus could not give Pilate any further answer is that Pilate was looking at Truth incarnate. While I don't think he "saw" Jesus as the Messiah; he did come to the conclusion that Jesus was "not guilty". His internal filter was resonating with God's eternal truth which stood before him. Yet, because of his "fear", he was manipulated by the powers of his time to condemn an innocent man to death by crucifixion.

Every day we each live our lives making life and death decisions on the basis of what we think is "truth"? What is the basis of the internal filter we each use? Ultimately, it is each's person's conscience. The problem is that a person's individual filter can become warped and out of sync with ultimate truth. When that happens, bad decisions are made that have eternal and irreparable consequences. We, in essence, miss the mark. The Bible calls this "sin". There is a standard by which we will all be judged someday. That standard is God's truth. For the Christian, truth is not an abstract; but, a personality. It is the personality revealed in scripture about Jesus Christ. Thus, the standard by which Christians are to be judged is "What would Jesus do?" That answer is "truth".